BOUGHT A REAL BOOK RECENTLY?

It’s been a while since I lost my faith in buying books from new or unknown authors. Being a writer myself I like to support new writers. Trouble is, the last few paperbacks I have purchased from Amazon have been less than satisfying. In fact, the last one I bought arrived two days ago and I eagerly made myself a cup of coffee ready to sit down and have a good read. I flipped the package open and for my twenty five bucks (US) I had it read before my coffee was half drunk!

Now, I don’t like to complain. My own books are quite, well, book sized! I can now understand why people don’t want to purchase or download books by new authors anymore. Most of them could be written on single sheet of A4, and to be respectful to the writers, probably on both sides. I don’t want to pay twenty five dollars for it though! Nor do I want to pay .99c and download it. I don’t have a kindle, and I like to read on paper. That’s just me. I can settle down to the latest Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Michael Connelly and feel satisfied that I’ve had a good read. And many cups of coffee!

I have to admit to being a bit worried when I wrote my memoir. I thought, ummm, well, it’s only 188 pages, I could read it in about twenty five cups of coffee and a couple of donuts! I need not have worried. It was priced right, it’s a good read (I have been told.) Reviews are good, and, having bought a few copies to give away it’s got a good hefty weight to it.

Remember the old-fashioned Penguin Paperbacks? Or the Mills&Boon romance novels? Eats and Treats is sort of like that. I’m happy with it.

When I wrote my first major novel The Girl From Kosovo, now that was hefty. Over 450 pages and around about 120,000 words. Guess what? I got messages from folk who bought it saying “I don’t like long books.”

Well I can understand not wanting to read long books, that’s fine. But I don’t hear that many young people complaining about Harry Potter! In fact, many of them say they were disappointed to reach the last few pages!

What a joy it was to read in the guardian that young people are driving sales back to paper and print rather than downloads.

Well, boys and girls, men and women, people of all genders, what a pleasing thing that is to find out. People are beginning to enjoy once again the feel and smell of books. More than that, they are beginning to understand that books are highly collectible! A first edition of Stephen King’s Carrie can go upwards of five grand and more! Lovely when you can get it!

Anyway, that’s my gripe for the day. I really really really really really would like anyone who wants a good fun read with lots of laughs and probably an equal amount of tears to buy the paperback of Eats and Treats. I promise, it’s a real book, with some good reading and hardly any ‘white space’. If you want to download it, that’s OK too. But I would prefer that you actually paid something for it, even though you can read it on Kindle KDP. I just paid twenty five bucks for a slim volume. Buy this paperback for twenty one bucks or under four bucks if you want to download it. I promise you will actually get some value for your money! Take care now. Thanks for the time.